derivative originals

How is it that, when we find music or literature that we like, there's such a strong sense of recognising something that we're already familiar with? There's both in the things we really like - old and new. We recognise patterns and themes we've seen before, but the artist or writer brings something new. The best music and writing resonates with other great music and writing. 

I've been reading Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon. The title alludes to something T S Eliot wrote: 'Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal...' and to the general idea that there is nothing truly new. Along the same lines, Harold Bloom maintains that everything that has ever been written is a wilful misinterpretation of other texts. 

It's an interesting idea. I like what Austin Kleon writes about influence in this book. He says that the problem with our concept of influence is that it implies passivity on the part of the one being influenced, when actually artists and writers choose to be influenced and choose how they are influenced. Influence is not something you passively receive, it's something you take - it's an active process. I stole that idea from his book and put it in my own words. I can't remember his exact words, just the idea. Bloom takes a similar line as well. He talks about writers turning the tables on their precursors, so that when you read the precursor it seems like somehow they've been influenced by the later writer. 

It's not stealing in any bad sense, it's just the way creativity works. Good artists and writers draw on the work of other artists and writers and create their own unique thing, and doing that well is what it means to be a good artist or writer. It makes sense when you think about it. Like, say if you want to play the guitar. You have to start by learning how to play the same way everyone else does. You're not a brilliant guitarist if you start by doing something that's never been done with the guitar before. It would have no value because you can't play the thing. Later on you can do something novel - like Jimmy Page using a bow to play his guitar. Actually, even that wasn't completely original (other guitarists had been doing it), which illustrates the point.